Gusto Pricing 2026
Gusto pricing: Simple plan $40/month base + $6 per employee/month. What follows is what that figure does and does not cover, what drives the total, and what comparable payroll tools charge.
See full Gusto overview — features, integrations & alternatives- Pricing model
- Subscription
- Starting price
- Simple plan $40/month base + $6 per employee/month
- Free trial
- No
Tiered plans: Simple ($40/mo + $6 PEPM), Plus ($80/mo + $12 PEPM), Premium (custom), and Contractor-Only ($35/mo + $6/contractor). Cost is driven by plan tier and headcount.
What Gusto costs at 25, 100 and 500 seats
Annual software spend computed at $6/user/month — Gusto's published per-seat rate. That is not always the same as the headline "starting from" price, which often refers to a single-user or entry plan. Implementation, integrations and support are on top.
| Seats | Gusto / year | Category range / year |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | $1,800 | $2,250 – $55,275 |
| 100 | $7,200 | $9,000 – $221,100 |
| 500 | $36,000 | $45,000 – $1,105,500 |
Category range is the 25th–75th percentile of published per-seat rates across 4 payroll products, median $18.5/user/month.
What comparable payroll tools charge
Published per-seat rates from other products in this category, cheapest first. Gusto sits below the category median on published rates.
What does Gusto cost?
Gusto publishes a list price. Enter your seat count for an annual figure at that rate.
Gusto pricing FAQs
How much does Gusto cost?
Gusto pricing: Simple plan $40/month base + $6 per employee/month. At that rate a 100-seat deployment is about $7,200 a year before implementation and add-ons. Tiered plans: Simple ($40/mo + $6 PEPM), Plus ($80/mo + $12 PEPM), Premium (custom), and Contractor-Only ($35/mo + $6/contractor). Cost is driven by plan tier and headcount.
What drives the cost of Gusto?
Tiered plans: Simple ($40/mo + $6 PEPM), Plus ($80/mo + $12 PEPM), Premium (custom), and Contractor-Only ($35/mo + $6/contractor). Cost is driven by plan tier and headcount.
What are the alternatives to Gusto and what do they cost?
Among payroll products that publish a rate, Rippling Payroll is the cheapest at about $8 per user per month and Papaya Global the most expensive at about $650. Published rates bound the negotiation even when Gusto itself is quote-based.
Is Gusto pricing negotiable?
Published list rates are the starting point, not the floor. Annual commitment, multi-year terms and seat volume are the usual levers, and vendors in this category commonly discount for committed seat counts. Bring a competing published rate to the conversation.